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As White House retreats from climate leadership, others must step up (Editorial)

Updated on June 2, 2017 at 2:30 PMPosted on June 2, 2017 at 2:27 PM

Donald Trump

President Donald Trump stands next to the podium after speaking about the U.S. role in the Paris climate change accord, Thursday, June 1, 2017, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington.
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)

President Donald Trump was able to unilaterally pull out of the Paris climate accord Thursday because it was unilaterally agreed to by his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Obama should have sought Senate approval for the treaty, as the Constitution requires. Trump ought to do the same. And if he doesn't, as seems likely, it is up to the American people to elect representatives committed to addressing climate change.

Trump and his supporters argue that the agreement was never going to result in a large enough reduction in carbon dioxide to make much of a dent in the Earth's rising temperatures. It was voluntary, with no enforcement mechanisms outside of peer pressure. It threatened to displace jobs in fossil fuel industries in the short term for the promise of jobs in renewable energy in the future.

Yet, despite its compromises, the climate deal mattered.

It was an achievement of diplomacy and cooperation among 195 nations. They saw the melting ice sheets, disappearing glaciers, rising seas and global temperatures and were trying to do something about it. Emissions targets set in Paris were a start, with hopes that market forces and advances in technology would take hold over time and accelerate progress.

Trump's decision to leave the Paris agreement will not be fatal; other nations, states, cities and multinational businesses so far are reaffirming their intentions to abide by the accord's goals. New York and other key states are already jumping into the fray. Though the United States is responsible for 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, historically it is the largest contributor of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. As citizens of the planet, we ought to participate in the solution, not walk away from it.

Contrary to Trump's Rose Garden assertion, the climate accord was not an abrogation of American sovereignty. Each nation sets its own carbon reduction goals. The president didn't have to blow up the agreement; he simply could have changed America's targets. His administration's actions to gut environmental regulations already put them in jeopardy. But withdrawing from the pact was one campaign promise Trump decided to keep.

The dealmaker-in-chief's Plan B is to seek a better deal. It's a fantasy; 194 nations are not coming back to the negotiating table to mollify an American president who has said climate change is a hoax. And who would trust a new agreement after Trump's unilateral decision to cancel this one? Europe, China and the rest of the world will insist on a treaty with the force of law - a treaty ratified by the Senate.

Meanwhile, for the first time since the end of World War II, the rest of the world will move ahead without the United States at the table. It's a stunning retreat from leadership. China, whose emissions account for 25 percent of the world's total and growing, will take the lead on climate action, along with Europe.

America First will be America Alone.

Americans who want the United States to do more to mitigate climate change will have to build a new consensus for it from the ground up. Elect mayors, county executives, state legislators, governors and members of Congress who will act in the absence of leadership from the White House.